'Restored our faith in humanity': Saskatoon dog found safe after missing for 4 days in extreme cold

A Saskatoon dog has been found safe and returned to his family after going missing on Christmas Eve and spending four days in the extreme cold.

On Christmas Eve, Rina Wozniak and her family went to a friend's house when they received a call from Animal Control an hour later saying their front door was wide open and their two dogs, Jayce and Tito, were missing.

Wozniak says her heart stopped when she heard the news and was terrified for them.

“Right away we got in the vehicle and came home like anyone else would do, threw on our boots and winter gear knowing we were going to be out searching,” Wozniak told CTV News.

Within five minutes of being home, they found the recently adopted Jayce across the street, but Tito was nowhere to be found.

The family stayed up all night and didn’t have any luck finding him. She decided to post about their missing dog on several Facebook groups, hoping to spread the word.

COMMUNITY HELP

Throughout the four days of searching, Wozniak said 30 to 40 people who she didn’t know came to their home to try and help find Tito.

“If I was to take anything from this and say well why did this happen? I think it really was to bring people together,” Wozniak said.

“It just restored our faith in humanity really.”

Paige Harrison, a dog walker, and Ana Supynuk, a dog trainer in Saskatoon, had fostered Jayce before he joined their family and have been friends for over a year.

When they heard the news of Tito going missing, the pair say they left their house within five minutes to help.

“In the end, if one of my dogs got lost I would be absolutely devastated just like I was with Tito,” Harrison said.

Harrison spent all four days at Wozniak’s home making chili and serving hot chocolate and snacks to people coming by to help. The duo says they were surprised by how many people came out, especially since it was the holidays.

“It made me feel really good to know the community will actually come together in times of need because humanity has been hit and miss since COVID,” Supynuk said.

REUNITED

After four days of searching, Wozniak woke up on Monday wondering how much energy her family had left to keep looking for Tito but was pleasantly surprised.

While driving around the city, she received a call from her cousin saying he found Tito in a field in Brighton across from Motion Fitness by Highway 5.

Wozniak says he was ready to bolt and wouldn’t come close to anyone but she eventually called out to him.

“When he noticed it was me, his tail started wagging and he just like fell into me and then he was safe, he felt it too, we both felt it.”

Wozniak says the family is at peace now that their missing family member is home safe and sound.

Tito managed to survive by digging a hole by some trees near the highway where he was able to keep himself warm; he had an elevated heart rate which has since gone down.

While he does have some tenderness in his paws and the family is watching out for frostbite, Tito is doing well.

“We always used to joke and be like ‘Oh my god Tito if you ever had to survive, you’d never survive out in the wilderness but he did.”